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Monthly Archives: May 2015

A Concert in Trebah Gardens

I mentioned a few days ago that The Suitcase Singers were to do a concert in aid of Dementia Uk in Trebah Gardens tonight. It has been fabulous! The weather was kind to us. The new amphitheatre was amazing with excellent acoustics and there was a brilliant appreciative audience of well over 100. Click on any photo in the gallery for detail and the caption. Happy days! Thanks to our lovely leader Claire.

Beautiful flowers?

Tree Ferns

The view from the house

Hanging out before the concert

Checking up on words

Before the concert – the warm-up in the mirror

Just been given a huge round of applause

Couldn’t resist this shot

From the path back up through the gardens

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 22, 2015 in Beauty, Dementia UK, environment, nature, photography, Postaday 2015, Trebah gardens

Tags: The Suitcase Singers

Perranporth Sands, Pools and A Message

21 May

I needed to blow the blues away this afternoon so we went for a really windy walk on the beach at Perranporth, three miles of golden sand when the tide is out, as it was. The little pools left by the outgoing tide had bits of seaweed floating in them and small patches of floating sand that were creating pretty shadows. There was an enormous message written in the sand saying Thank you from Perranporth and we guessed that it was for the valedictory fly past of our Rescue helicopter fleet. I am told that the service has been ‘privatised’. Click on any photo for the detail and the caption.

Beautiful Perranporth sands

Seaweed floating in a pool

Sand patterns and their shadows

Tyre tracks. Tomorrow sees the start of the Tunes in the Dunes Festival and there has been a lots of traffic on the sand.

Message in the sand

SAR Sea Kings on their valedictory flypast – Photo by David Wheeler. Thank you!

SAR Sea Kings on their valedictory flypast, David Wheeler’s photo. Thank you.

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 21, 2015 in Beauty, Cornwall, environment, nature, Perranporth, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: rock pools, Sea Kings

Dawn From the Space Shuttle, Clematis and Poem

20 May

1 Yesterday on BBC Radio 4 there was a programme called Soul Music. It is a series where they take a song and examine how it has touched various people very deeply. One of the people interviewed was Chris Ferguson, Astronaut, who described watching from the space shuttle, Endeavour, when the 40 minute night becomes day and how the colours are heart wrenchingly beautiful. He told how each of the families at home made recordings of two or three favourite songs which the astronauts used in turn as their ‘wake-up’ music. One of his was the soul music of the day – ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’. Click here for the programme in case you would like to listen and here is the song. The whole programme is full of touching stories. I really hope you can listen.

2 Our Clematis Montana is flowering beautifully over the roof of the shed.

Clematis Montana

3 One to amuse – and perhaps set you thinking…….

— To Whom It May Concern —

This poem about ice cream
has nothing to do with government,
with riot, with any political scheme.It is a poem about ice cream. You see ?
About how you might stroll into a shop
and ask; One Strawberry Split. One Mivvi.What did I tell you ? No one will die.
No licking tongues will melt like candle wax.
This is a poem about ice cream. Do not cry.

— Andrew Motion

For Alex who I think will especially appreciate my first beautiful thing tonight.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 20, 2015 in Beauty, garden, music, nature, photography, poetry, Postaday 2015

Tags: Andrew Motion, bbc radio 4, Chris Ferguson, Soul Music, space shuttle, To Whom It May Concern

Echium, Three Cornered Leek and Courgette

19 May

1 Along our road are a couple of Echiums in flower so that you can see how big and beautiful they are. (I showed you our baby ones a couple of days ago.) They hum with bees!

Echium in flower

2 Down the lane there are masses of Three Cornered Leeks. If you look carefully, you will see the triangular stems.

Three Cornered Leek

3 I have planted our Courgette out today in mushroom manure to help them grow. I have protected it with a cane cage to keep the wind and the cats off.

Courgette planted and protected

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 19, 2015 in Beauty, environment, garden, nature, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: Echium, planting for bees

Sewing, A Gift and A Rainbow

18 May

1 I have spent most of today, a very rainy and windy day, embroidering the duvet covers (nearly done) and changing the pink buttons on my new mac for blue ones as I am not really a pink clothes person!

Blue buttons, just 2 of the 14!

2 I did a small favour for a friend last week and today at choir she gave me a bunch of very pretty pink Carnations. Pink to wear? No. Pink flowers? Any flowers? Yes please!

carnation

Driving home from singing tonight I just had to stop to get a photo of a rainbow. It was a full bow with a complete reflection but I couldn’t get far enough away to get the whole picture. This photo will show you how bright and dramatic it was though.

Bit of bright rainbow

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 18, 2015 in Beauty, environment, friendship, nature, photography, Postaday 2015, Uncategorized

Tags: pink carnations, rainbow

A Walk Around Truro

17 May

I grew up in and around Truro and thought I knew the city quite well. True, I knew all the lanes, alleys and short cuts having spent hours roaming or cycling around as a child but today I saw and learned so much more! We went on a guided tour, Truro Now and Then and discovered more than I can possibly tell you about. I will give you a gallery with captions and wish I could remember all the fascinating stories we heard! Next time you are in Truro, book a tour with Viv Robinson, Blue Badge guide and have the secrets unfurled as you walk around. Click on any photo for the detail and the caption.

Boscawen Street was not always so wide. There were houses and shops down the middle, called Middle Row

Squeeze Guts Alley, named not as we always thought for the tiny alleyway but because the fish market was next door and the fish were gutted there!

The Cathedral from St Mary’s Street

Just outside the cathedral, the road had wooden cobbles to keep down the noise of the carriages for those inside at the service. The wood can still be seen where the tarmac has worn away.

The architect, John Loughborough Pearson, who designed Truro Cathedral

The Cathedral was built to incorporate St Mary’s Church

This Gryphon appears to be protecting her young. This wasn’t part of the tour, just something that caught my eye.

See the damaged lead and the very blue glass? A naughty boy shot a hole in the original and it was couldn’t be replaced by the original window maker as his shop in London had been bombed. Temporary glass was put in and is still there.

The damaged pane of glass from inside the Cathedral

The spire from St Mary’s Church is in the grounds at the back of the Cathedral

The old Assembly Rooms built in 1780 which had inside a ballroom and a theatre hence Mr Garrick and Mr Shakespeare having their portarits in stone on the frontage

David Garrick

William Shakespeare

Victorian public toilets which later became a Police station and more recently an art gallery!

The oldest building in Truro

This bronze sculpture by Tim Shaw was unveiled in 2011 by Queen drummer Roger Taylor, who was born in Truro, and is meant to symbolise the spirit of Cornwall

Inside and upstairs of The Cornish Food Box premises. It is a listed building as the beams have Socialist slogans from the 1920’s painted on them

Walsingham Place

12 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 17, 2015 in architecture, Beauty, Cornwall, environment, photography, Postaday 2015, Truro

Tags: John Loughborough Pearson, Truro Cathedral

Baby Echium, Threads and Happiness

16 May

We spent the morning putting the world to rights with lovely friends who brought us some baby plants, Echium, which grow to 8 or 9ft and attract bees by the dozens. The plants themselves seem to emanate a buzzing which sounds quite unreal. They will not flower for two years but we will nurture them with love until they do!

Baby Echium plants

2 I’ve done a bit more embroidery this afternoon and just love my new collection of threads.

Embroidery threads

3 And in these days in the aftermath of our General Election when some of us are still feeling bereft, a little advice that I am trying to live by.

Create all the happiness you can

Thanks to Jeremy Bentham (15 February 1748 – 6 June 1832), a British gentleman, jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. What he actually said was :-

Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, — will invite you – to add something to the pleasure of others, — or to diminish something of their pains. And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom, — while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by beautiful flowers of peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul.

Advice to a young girl, June 22, 1830

and I love it in its entirety.

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 16, 2015 in art, Beauty, friendship, Happiness, nature, photography, Postaday 2015, quotations

Tags: Jeremy Bentham, Triennial Echium

Lichen, Sewing and Sally-Boots

15 May

1 I love the colours and shapes of Lichen and found this growing on our, until now, beautiful arched Cedrus Atlantica Glauca. For some reason, it has not sprouted this year. We have planted Clematis to climb up the structure but are feeling very sad that it seems to have died.

Lichen

2 My sewing project is coming on. I have attached all four panels to the duvet covers and I am now embroidering little bits to lift the design and to secure the panel more effectively. Here is the Fox. I’m wondering whether to do a bit more than the stems and his nose.

Embroidered panel – green stems and black nose.

3 I have posted another pair of Sally-boots today.

Sally-boots ready for the post

22 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 15, 2015 in Beauty, embroidery, knitting, nature, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: Cedrus Atlantica Glauca dying, Sally-boots

Singing, Choir-babies and Bluebells

14 May

1 We had the most amazing and magical session at Suitcase Singers this morning – a rehearsal for our concert next week in the very lovely Trebah Gardens in aid of Dementia UK.

Concert at Trebah Garden

2 Our Choir-babies are growing up!

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3 Grand-baby B had a lovely evening among the bluebells the other day and the photos came to us today.

Grand-baby B walking through the bluebells

13 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 14, 2015 in Beauty, Choir-baby, Dementia UK, environment, nature, photography, Postaday 2015, singing

Tags: bluebells, Dementia UK, The Suitcase Singers, Trebah Gardens

View-Master, Knitting and Drug of Choice

13 May

1 My sorting continues – I think it will last a lifetime! Today I came across my View-Master, a toy I had when I was nine or ten. It is a three dimensional viewer into which you add discs with tiny pictures. You click the handle and a scene comes into view. I’m thinking these had something to do with my love of/interest in Italy, The Pyramids, Japan and lots of other ‘exotic’ places. There is one of Cornwall too but I was living in Cornwall at the time though we didn’t have a car so many of these places were as unknown to me as Italy or Japan!